Wednesday, April 16, 2008

In 2008, the Brawlers are headed to the bottom of the barrel again. We've already lost to the two best teams in HRD. This Sunday, we were only down by eleven at halftime against the Bosse$, but we let them keep their same scoring pace in the second half while severely hampering our own. I guess by that time I had pretty much given up.

After a couple of jams when I couldn't get out of the pack, I started pointing the finger at my team and screaming about how they needed to step it up. After a couple of more jams that looked exactly the same, I started to turn the finger towards myself. I saw our win slipping further and further out of reach, and the rest of the team seemed to be utterly emotionless about it. I was getting more and more frustrated trying to figure out why.

Ever since I got stuck in a pack during the HaRD Knocks scrimmage against Rocky Mountain in February, I've been complaining about how I'm not the jammer I used to be. I've been making excuses about my worn-out skates, the fifteen pounds I can't lose, and the blocking ability of my team.

Then I saw it. A sign blinked at me from above: "Don't find fault; find a remedy."

Now me, I'm not much for inspirational mumbo-jumbo, but to see that sign the morning after I just lost another bout...hmmm. Maybe I need to quit telling myself and anyone listening that I'm not a jammer anymore and start doing the off-skate workouts I need to get my speed and agility back. Maybe I need to get serious about those fifteen pounds, and quit drinking those damn Cokes every morning and eating that whole bag of Flat Earth chips at one sitting. Maybe I need to make my teammates hit each other over and over and over again until they get as excited as I am.